A New Year for Injuries

A New Year for Injuries

Posted By
Samster Konkel & Safran, C.C.

People celebrate New Year’s as a way to welcome the future. It’s
a time to revel in renewal, change, and hope. Often, however, that celebration
goes overboard. Here are a few ways people can sustain
injury during a New Year’s celebration.

Binge Drinking

Alcohol is usually an inescapable part of New Year’s celebration.
While people wait for midnight to roll around, they typically fill the
gap with food, drink, and social activities. According to the Wisconsin
Department of Health Services, the alcohol-consumption rate in Wisconsin
is 1.3 times higher than the national average, and adult binge drinking is the 3rd highest in the United States. Binge drinking is a dangerous way to consume
alcohol. Not only can it lead to aggressive behavior and violence, it
also increases your risk of an accident or fall and it could lead to alcohol
poisoning. This practice has also been linked to mental health problems
with long-term use.

Drunk Driving

Another consequence of New Year’s drinking is an increase in the
amount of drunk drivers on the road after midnight. Once the festivities
have ended, if people haven’t arranged for an Uber or a cab ride
home, they might attempt to drive themselves, regardless of whether or
not they are physically capable. New Year’s Eve is one of the most
dangerous times to drive. Around 42% of
traffic accidents on that day are caused by drunk driving. In 2015, about 1,200 people were
killed during the holiday in an alcohol-related incident.

Fire

Strangely enough, holidays and starting fires go hand in hand. After all,
you rely on fire to cook your food, bake your goods, warm your home, and
start your fireworks. However, there’s a good reason people warn
their children to not play with fire. While more firework-related injuries
are reported during Independence Day celebrations, it’s not unusual
to hear the crack or boom of a firecracker go off in your neighborhood
during New Year’s Eve. Even sparklers, one of the more mild-seeming
celebratory fireworks, caused 28% of recorded firework injuries in 2014.

Inattention can also lead to serious house fires. People who leave their
cooking unattended are more likely to encounter a fire. From 2004–2008,
U.S. fire departments responded to about 154,700 home cooking fires each
year. Leaving a holiday candle burning can also be dangerous, as it has
the potential to catch surrounding objects on fire. This danger increases
if your home smoke detector is broken.

Guns

Those with guns sometimes enjoy firing their weapons into the air in celebration.
This celebratory gunfire, while intended to be as loud but harmless as
your average firework, can nevertheless be dangerous. What people don’t
realize is bullets fired into the air
must fall back to the ground. While the initial velocity of the shot is lost,
the force of gravity’s pull on the bullet is just as deadly. The
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did a study revealing
that 80% of injuries from celebratory gunfire are to the head, feet, and
shoulders—those parts of the body most vulnerable to a bullet falling
almost directly downward. Since 1999, at least 4 children were killed
as a result of celebratory gunfire.

Lack of Care

Drinking in general, even in moderation, lowers peoples’ ability
to reason and increases their likelihood of injuring themselves. Even
those not inclined to drink may find themselves cutting safety corners
or relaxing to the point of inattention merely because of the holiday
spirit. For example, people can get injured even before the party starts.
A cork can fly out of a champagne bottle at 50 MPH with 3 times the amount
of pressure behind it as a car tire. If someone makes the mistake of pointing
the bottle at their own eye or the eye of someone standing close, the
cork could cause a severe injury, according to several ophthalmologists.

When you’re celebrating this year and next New Year’s Eve,
make sure you take the appropriate precautions to protect yourself and
your loved ones from serious injury. However, if you’ve already
been injured, you may need to speak to an experienced Milwaukee
personal injury attorney.

Contact us at (414) 455-1639 or fill out our online form for a free case
consultation today.